[1] Turn right at the roundabout, just up from the Tourist Information Centre (SP809033), and after 500m take a track signposted the ‘Upper Icknield Way’ on your left. The first footpath on your right leads uphill to a cairn – bear left here into woodland, continuing through a gate and then drifting right through a nature reserve to reach the road. Walk straight through the car park on the opposite side of the road and join a path that takes you down to a crossroads. Turn right and go through a gate onto Whiteleaf Hill, then follow the line of the Ridgeway right off the hill down to Lower Cadsden (SP826045).
[2] Keep the Plough Inn on your left as you walk down to meet the road, then take the first footpath on your right. Follow the Ridgeway through a nature reserve, and after the steps turn right along a bridleway before taking the first footpath on your left up to Chequers Knap. Head straight down from the hill and bear left to follow a footpath across the head of the valley. After a stretch of woodland, take a footpath on your left that continues right through two kissing gates and crosses a private track before coming out on the road at Ellesborough (SP836066).
[3] Turn right along the road, then almost immediately right again down a gravel track. Take the first footpath on your left, which leads to the road at Coombe. Turn right and look out for another footpath on your left, which leads sharply uphill. The OAR signpost just before the hilltop leads you left up to Coombe Hill. Bear right here down a grassy track, following OAR signs to Bacombe Hill. At a gap in the woodland, take an easy-to-miss path on your right, and when you come to the top of a rise turn right downhill to reach Bacombe Lane – follow the lane left to a bridge over the A413. Turn right at the first T-junction and then quickly left down Chapel Lane, and follow this to a small road. Here, turn right and continue for around 100 yards before turning left into Hale Lane (SP873073).
[4] After a kilometre, a bridleway leads into the woods on the left. Follow it briefly before forking right uphill and eventually reaching a clearing at the top of the rise. Here, keep right along the main track, which runs past a picnic area to a road in front of a café. Turn left and follow the road for 500m, leaving it on a footpath that continues straight ahead when the road bends left. Pass through a deer gate and turn right after the entrance to ‘The Chalet’ to reach a road, where the route turns left and then right past Aston Hill Bike Club (SP891101).
[5] Take the first footpath on your left and then left again at a fork in the path. Continue straight across the golf course and follow the footpath downhill to cross a busy road. Walk down St Albridge Lane and look out for a small car park road on your right, which continues down to the canal. Here, turn right and follow the canal into Buckland Wharf.